Troolin's new [9 articles]

Note (first note only)

Abstract: An account of the history and actions of one man is used to show how agency was central to processes of social change among Kubo people of the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea. Through a thirteen-year period, a growing awareness of, but little exposure to, `Western' modes of living challenged earlier certainties, created desires, and suggested alternatives. Modernity thus provided the context for change. But modernity is not itself a process of change. By drawing from ambiguities inherent in pre-existing

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Literacy in a small, rural, newly literate Papua New Guinean village is analysed by placing it in the context of local notions of Christianity, the self and language. Villagers' interpretations of the relationship between Catholicism and the written word are based on their Cargo-oriented world-view and on their pre-Christian beliefs about language as a powerful means by which individuals could bring about transformations in their world. Local ideas of the self and others are articulated and reinforced through an emphasis on ...

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The analysis of citizenship often neglects descriptions of what people think about participating in routine civic duties, instead making valuable criticisms of the processes that exclude or restrict them from political involvement. Here, I describe how residents of central New Ireland reason about their debts as citizens in relation to the mundane work of arranging secondary school fees. The singular act of paying the school fee evokes multiple contexts: of the modern state, codified matrilineal traditions, and eclipsed cultural practices— thereby ...

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Exploring global processes of "modernity" as they engaged Chambri of Papua New Guinea, we examine two locally salient discourses, presented by PepsiCo and by Antioch, a Catholic youth organization. These were employed by rebellious youths and more conservative elders to debate the appropriate relationship among "traditional" and "modern" selves and socialities. Both of the discourses into which the debate was channeled were concerned with ßelf-creation." This meant that "modernism" was more consolidated than challenged. Consequently, even for its most vigorous proponents, ...

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This article brings together theories of local modernity and of linguistic ideology to analyze the way the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea have encountered modern linguistic ideology through their Christianization. Against the prevailing anthropological focus on the indigenization of modernity, this article argues the importance of attending to cases in which people grasp the content of modernity on its own terms. Studying this kind of local modernity allows us to model an important kind of contemporary cultural change and discover neglected ...

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Non-Western Christianity engages with capitalist development and ideas of modernization from multiple and competing perspectives. In this article, I argue that as researchers we can weave together disparate theoretical strands attempting to explain the appeal of Christianity—particularly its Pentecostal and charismatic forms—by examining indigenous notions of "salvation" that have often been overlooked in the literature. To illustrate, I examine millennial Christianity among the Ipili of Papua New Guinea, demonstrating how their understandings of "heaven" and their desire for the Second Coming ...

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<div>While ethnography ordinarily privileges anthropological interpretations, this book attempts the reciprocal process of describing indigenous modes of analysis. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research with the Yonggom people of New Guinea, the author examines how indigenous analysis organizes local knowledge and provides a framework for interpreting events, from first contact and colonial rule to contemporary interactions with a multinational mining company and the Indonesian state.<br><br>This book highlights Yonggom participation in two political movements: an international campaign against the Ok Tedi mine, ...

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<div>A familiar cultural presence for people the world over, “the whiteman” has come to personify the legacy of colonialism, the face of Western modernity, and the force of globalization. Focusing on the cultural meanings of whitemen in the Orokaiva society of Papua New Guinea, this book provides a fresh approach to understanding how race is symbolically constructed and why racial stereotypes endure in the face of counterevidence.<br><br>While Papua New Guinea’s resident white population has been severely reduced due to postcolonial white ...